Laxmikanth Ch 8: Directive Principles of State Policy (CAPF Digest)

The idea in one line

Part IV (Articles 36 to 51) lists the Directive Principles, the non-justiciable but fundamental aims that the State is to keep in view while making laws, borrowed from the Irish Constitution and meant to build a welfare state.

Their character

• Non-justiciable: not enforceable in a court (Article 37 says they are "fundamental in the governance of the country" but the State cannot be sued for not implementing them).
• They are positive obligations on the State, contrasted with Fundamental Rights, which are largely negative limits on State power.
• They aim at social and economic democracy, completing the political democracy guaranteed by Part III.

The threefold classification

Socialistic principles:

• Article 38: promote the welfare of the people, minimise inequalities of income, status and opportunity.
• Article 39: adequate means of livelihood, equitable distribution of material resources, equal pay for equal work, protection of children and workers.
• Article 39A: equal justice and free legal aid (added by the 42nd Amendment 1976).
• Article 41: right to work, education and public assistance in certain cases.
• Article 42: just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief.
• Article 43: living wage for workers; Article 43A: participation of workers in management (42nd Amendment).
• Article 47: raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living, and improve public health.

Gandhian principles:

• Article 40: organisation of village panchayats.
• Article 43B: promotion of cooperative societies (added by the 97th Amendment 2011).
• Article 46: promote the educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections.
• Article 47: prohibition of intoxicating drinks and drugs (the part on prohibition).
• Article 48: organise agriculture and animal husbandry, prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves.

Liberal-intellectual principles:

• Article 44: uniform civil code for citizens.
• Article 45: early childhood care and education for children below 6 years (recast by the 86th Amendment).
• Article 48A: protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife (added by the 42nd Amendment).
• Article 49: protection of monuments and places of national importance.
• Article 50: separation of the judiciary from the executive.
• Article 51: promotion of international peace and security.

Rights versus principles

• Champakam Dorairajan (1951): Fundamental Rights would prevail over Directive Principles in case of conflict (this led to the First Amendment).
• The 25th Amendment inserted Article 31C to give certain Directive Principles primacy.
• Kesavananda Bharati (1973) and especially Minerva Mills (1980): the Court held that the Constitution rests on a balance between Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles, and that destroying this balance would violate the basic structure.

CAPF angle: questions cluster on which Article carries which directive (44 = uniform civil code, 40 = village panchayats, 48A = environment, 50 = separation of judiciary from executive, 39A = free legal aid) and on which Amendment added a new directive (39A and 48A by the 42nd, 43B by the 97th). The human-rights link is Article 39A: free legal aid underpins access to justice for the poor and for detainees, a theme that recurs in custodial-rights material.